South Carolina removes the Physical Flag: Can it remove the Spiritual Illness of Racial Discrimination?

The South Carolina legislature has voted to remove the Confederate flag from the grounds of the statehouse. It was put there in 1961 as a show of defiance against the Civil Rights movement, i.e. against the demand that the system of legally-imposed segregation of African-Americans cease.

But, as I have argued before, the flag is only a symbol. South Carolina needs to address its real racial disparities if this vote is to be more than a gesture born of the heat of the moment.